In horse racing, there is almost always a horse who is expected to set the pace early, meaning they’ll take the lead out of the gates but eventually other horses will close in, take the lead and win the race. It’s almost scripted. If you watched the Preakness over the weekend you saw it unfold almost exactly how everyone said it would. Shackleford and Flashpoint set a fast pace early and Animal Kingdom and Dialed In closed late. Animal Kingdom was supposed to win, except the Preakness is half a furlong shorter than the Kentucky Derby, so Shackleford was able to hold the lead and win the race.
I never had much interest in NASCAR, but I’m curious if a similar strategy is applied. I know there are teams, and based on my viewing of Talladega Nights (which is probably not the best source of NASCAR knowledge), it seems that some teams are working to ensure victory for a designated teammate. Are there “pace setters” who have small hopes of winning the race?
Whoever has the fastest car and track position takes the lead. There may be faster cars further back, but it’s hard to pass cars and it may take awhile for them to get to the front. Usually, the fastest cars all make their way to the front and the fastest one is pretty obvious early on. The fastest doesn’t always win though, due to a number of reasons.
There are drivers who will let a fast car set the pace and then later on will start pushing their car harder. They are saving their equipment until it’s time to really go. That doesn’t mean the guy leading was running 100% either though, he may have just been running fast enough to stay ahead.
Basically, most race car drivers are secrective and keep everything close to their chest. Someone may have a car capable of lapping the whole field 10 times, but they may only keep a lead of a couple of seconds. Look at Bill Elliott at Talladega in 1985 for an example of that. He went 2 laps down early in the race due to an oil line coming loose. Under green, he made up the entire distance (about 5 miles behind the leader) and then he took the lead and just sat at the front instead of keeping the wicked fast pace he had been running. In his book he mentions how NASCAR didn’t mind him winning, but they told him they didn’t want him stinking up the show .
The next race in the Nationwide series (think junior varsity) is Saturday afternoon in Charlotte, broadcast on ABC. The Sprint cup series (think varsity) is Sunday night in Charlotte, broadcast on Fox.
About the only time you see someone intentionally in the back in NASCAR is at the two restrictor-plate tracks, Talledaga and Daytona. The cars there are modified to force a speed reduction for safety, as a result everyone’s going pretty much the same speed, and having 30+ cars all 6 inches away from one another at 200mph usually results in a big wreck sometime, and some drivers would rather stay back far enough that they can hopefully avoid it rather than be a part of it.
Most other tracks, if you have a car capable of being in the front, you want to be in the front, with “clean air” (not turbulent from all the other cars around) ahead of you, and any wrecks happening behind you. There might be a some cases where the driver doesn’t push the car to the limit immediately, as brakes and other equipment can overheat/wear in the course of a race, but nobody really wants to be anywhere but the front if they can help it.
NASCAR doesn’t really have too much in the way of “team orders” in most cases, not the way may other series do. There was a case last year where the eventual champion swapped pit crews with one of his teammates mid-race because his was messing up too much.
Do you pick hard tires or soft? Hard will last longer and you’ll have to change them less but soft will allow better grip and allow to you to pass on the inside.
Do you draft or take the lead? Being in front gives you a bully pulpit but requires more gas.
NASCAR cars all look the same but there are tons of minor tweaks allowed in the rules that give something but have a cost in performance. Each one depends on the style of the driver, the track conditions, the track itself and how the competition is performing.
NASCAR is an endurance trial, like marathon running. The detractors have no idea how awful it is inside that car and how much concentration is required.
I’m not a fan, but my brother is and he at least instilled within me respect for the sport.
In other words, every single driver in a NASCAR race is genuinely trying to win, correct? See, drafting was mentioned above and I wonder if a driver will sometimes sacrifice his fuel efficiency so that a teammate can draft for a while and possibly increase his odds of winning. Basically, I just wondered if there was anything akin to a pace setter or a sacrifice bunt or what have you.
Drafting only plays a small role at most tracks. Talladega and Daytona are tracks where they draft the entire time, but at every other track, handling pretty much negates any advantage the rear car might have drafting by the car not having any downforce when they try to turn as they get to a corner.
At those 2 tracks, they don’t really save any gas by drafting because they are still wide open. To keep from hitting the car in front of them, they drag the brakes without lifting. Doing that probably makes their mileage worse than the guy leading, but the difference is so small that it doesn’t matter, they all pit at the same time to stay in the draft.
Also, they don’t have a choice of tire compounds. Goodyear supplies the same tires for everyone for the whole weekend. It’s rare, but they might bring rain tires. I’ve only seen that happen three times that I can remember.
The short answer to this is no. Teammates may sometimes find themselves in a position to help each other out on the track, but it’s not a pre-set strategy to do so. If a driver/car is good enough to “set a pace,” they’re probably good enough to win, and they’ll try to win even if it means racing a teammate to the checkers.
It’s an endurance race and the crew chief depends on constant radio feedback from the driver on how the car is handling so they can make quick modifications to the car during pit stops. The common ones to hear are “too loose” or “too tight” referring to the suspension which can be adjusted in seconds during a pit.
Drivers can go faster on newer tires so they constanly strategize on when to change them. Pit during the race or wait for a yellow flag (accident). During crunch time at the end of the race they may even opt to just change two tires instead of four to shave off a couple seconds in the pit to gain a couple of spots.
Drafting can be seen in action at Talledega and Daytona. The cars typically stay in two lines (sometimes 3) and can keep speed as long as they are pushing or pulling someone. Sometimes a car falls out of line and is screwed. You can watch them just gradually fall back away from the others.
There usually is someone with the fastest car as the drivers will attest to in post race interviews “gordon definately had the car to beat today” but they don’t always win. Some get caught up in crashes, get blocked by others, can’t find a drafting partner, etc.
That is incorrect-the gas saved can be significant enough to allow someone to make it to the end (that’s how Darrell Waltrip won his only Daytona 500) while everybody else has to do a stop-and-go. In NASCAR Racing 2003, a very accurate sim (for its day at least), I’ve managed to pull off this trick on a few occasions.
In that situation, I’d say several people could have made it to the end, he just happened to gamble that he could make it and everyone else played it safe. It still happens every year, even on road courses and short tracks where there is no draft.
Sure, he used the draft, but not because nobody else could. Ryan Newman made for a few infuriating races in 2003 by gambling and winning.
In last weekend’s Nationwide race at Iowa Speedway, Nationwide series driver Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., won his first-ever NASCAR race. He was also the first Nationwide series driver to win his own race since March, 2010. So many Sprint Cup series drivers race in the Nationwide races that they dominate the winner’s circle (even if their wins don’t count in the series). Second place went to Carl Edwards, who is a Sprint Cup series driver. Edwards had just one the NASCAR All-Star race the night before in Charlotte, and collected $1.2 million.
Edwards was the better driver and had the better car in the Nationwide race. By all accounts he should have passed Stenhouse, Jr., in the remaining laps of the race and won. After the race, Edwards claimed during his last pitstop he called for a tire change. The tires were one-half pound out of the pressure they should have been and that’s why Edwards says he couldn’t catch Stenhouse, Jr.
Bull.
Both Stenhouse, Jr., and Edwards drive for Jack Roush (Roush Fenway Racing). IMHO, Edwards was told to let Stenhouse, Jr. win the race.
Roush drivers always race each other hard, I doubt Edwards would do that. Stenhouse has been getting better and better this year. It was just a matter of time before he won.
Strategy can be late in the race, when NASCAR throws a caution flag for “debris” (lots of people think it’s to make the race closer). Teams will decide to stay out or come in and get two fresh tires or four (since a pit crew can only work on one side at a time, unlike Formula 1), you have to weigh whether taking the time to get new tires pays off with better performance on the track. Race tires are not like the ones on your car when you put them on and leave them for 40,000 miles or so, they degrade during a race.
In the old days of Daytona before restrictor plates, a driver would trail the leading, letting the vacuum caused by his car pull him along and step on the gas to pass late for the win. The leader would try to block him. Look up 1979 Daytona 500 (Cale Yarborough tries to pass Donnie Allison, both crash out, Petty in third wins) or the 1976 race (David Pearson passes on the last turn of the last lap, Richard Petty tries to do the same but can’t control, they both crash feet short of the finish but Pearson can restart his car (he depressed the clutch before hitting the wall) while Petty can’t. But that doesn’t happen anymore.
Teams will make adjustments as the race goes on and weather conditions change so you will sometimes see drivers in the middle of the pack at the start steadily move up.